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Saturday, 5 May 2012

Darwin - Part 2, Litchfield National Park

02.05.12 –
Litchfield National Park

Today I went on my tour to Litchfield National
Park with APT. The guide was a very nice and smiley, and also very knowledgeable.
She said that she only does the Litchfield tour and so that’s why she knows so
much about that area. There were only 7 of us on the tour, which was nice as it
gave us an opportunity to get to know each other. One girl was around the same
age as me, and then there were two couples in their 50’s or 60’s and one lady
in her 50’s or 60’s, it was a nice little group and we all got along.

Our first stop was in Batchelor, where a Polish
gardener had built a castle.

We then stopped at a café outside Batchelor to
pick up our lunch; we had to pay for it ourselves, and we would be eating it
later on the tour. Some people also got a drink at the café, which we also had
to pay for ourselves. After we picked our food up we went to see the termite
mounds. There are two kinds: Magnetic termite mounds and Cathedral ones. It was
really amazing to see both kinds, but especially the cathedral ones, which was
over 5meters tall!

Magnetic termite mounds

Cathedral termite mounds

After the termite mounds we went to Tolmer Falls.
Because of a rare bat that lives in a cave at the bottom of the falls you’re
not allowed to go down or swim there, which is just as well, since it would
take you a dangerous 2 hours to get down. It was beautiful just to see from the
lookout, but I have to admit the water at the bottom looked quite tempting
because it was so clear.

Tolmer Falls

After Tolmer Falls we went to another waterfall
where we couldn’t swim, Wangi Falls. You can normally swim in Wangi, but there
was still too much water, and a risk of saltwater crocodiles, to swim there
yet.

Wangi Falls

We had a few choices of what we wanted to do at
Wangi. We could stay at the base of the waterfall and just chill out there, or
we could walk up to the top and around it. The guide, myself and two other
ladies (all the lone travellers) chose to go around. When we had just gotten
started there was a giant spider just above the boardwalk! I think it was a
golden orb spider. I’m not good with spiders… I was tempted to turn around and
walk back and wait at the base with the others. I probably spent a whole minute
debating with myself whether or not I should keep going, the other 3 were
talking about the spider and taking pictures in the meantime. In the end I
decided to keep going. I out my head down, walked as far away from the spider
as I could, mumbling to myself “it’s not there, it’s not there, it’s not there…”.
I clutched my water bottle close to me like a security blanket, nervously glancing
from side to side, until we got to the top. Luckily I didn’t see anymore. I was
thinking that if I did I would go back, but then I realized I would still have
to get past the first one, so I’m very glad I didn’t see anymore.

Top of Wangi Falls

I think the walk around the waterfall took us
about 40 minutes. It is quite steep and we all got sweaty and out of breath, it
would have been nice if the waterfall was open so that we could have jumped
straight in when we got back down. It was a nice walk, but I didn’t think it
was super impressive, keep in mind that I might not have enjoyed it so much
because of the spiders.

When the group met up again after our walk we got
our sandwiches from the café and sat down for lunch. I had a cheese and salad
sandwich and it was absolutely gorgeous! I wanted another one as soon as I
finished it!

After lunch we headed to Florence Falls, where we
could swim. There was an option again about what we wanted to do. The guide and
the couples went to the creek at the top of the waterfall while the 3 single
ladies, myself included, went down the steps to the bottom. It was an
absolutely beautiful waterfall, but it was so busy that I didn’t feel like
swimming. Some people made their way up a cliff and dived in, I was really
nervous watching them as I could see that it was deep where they dived, but
right next to it there were some rocks under water… Just a little bit wrong and…
Luckily nobody got hurt while I was there though. I don’t know what I would
have done if they were, I had no signal on my phone and I doubt anybody else
did except for the guides with their satellite phones.

Florence Falls

The last stop was Buley Rockhole. It’s actually
not just one Rockhole, but 7. It was quite cool, it was like loads of little
pools. Us 3 single ladies went down to the bottom one; there was nobody else
there when we got there. The water was slightly cold to get into, but really
nice and refreshing after a few seconds. Unfortunately, after we’d been in the
water for about 5 minutes a group of about 20 kids came along and were jumping
off a rock so water was splashing everywhere. Apparently there is a camp nearby
where they were staying. Of course I don’t mind kids swimming and stuff, but I
didn’t like that water was splashing everywhere, and I got out of the water
soon after they got in.

Buley Rockhole

The girl that was about the same age as me is from
Australia. After the tour we went back to our hostels to shower and change and
then we met up for dinner. I think the place we went to is called Kitty’s, the
food was really nice, but the portions are so big I didn’t manage to finish my
pasta, which might have something to do with the fact that I ordered garlic
bread on the side as well. I didn’t manage to finish either.

When I was going back to my hostel it suddenly
started raining! And I mean suddenly! It wasn’t a drizzle that gradually got
heavier, but heavy rain straight away, as well as lightning! Although I love
that kind of weather I ran the rest of the way back to the hostel since I didn’t
feel like getting drenched, it only took me one minute to run there, and I
still got drenched! Once I got inside it was really lovely though, listening to
the rain and thunder while reading a book and later going to sleep, it was great.

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